Mass..........................1.317 x 1025 lb, 5.9743 x 1024 kg Density.......................344.3 lb/cubic foot Mean Radius...................3963 miles Max Distance from Sun.........94,510,558 miles Min Distance from Sun...........91,403,702 miles Gravity relative to Earth ....1.00 Rotation Period.................23 h, 56 min, 4.099 s Revolution time around Sun....365 d, 6 h, 9 min, 9.504 s Orbital Velocity..............18.51 miles/second Number of Moons.................1
Obviously, I would highly recommend this book anyone who remotely likes sci-fi.
The centre of the earth is estimated to have a density of 13 000 kg m−3, a pressure of 360 GPa, and a temperature of 4500°C.
The lithosphere has the following abundance of elements: 46.60% oxygen, 27.72% silicon, 8.13% aluminium, 5.00% iron, 3.63% calcium, 2.83% sodium, 2.59% potassium, 2.09% magnesium, 0.44% titanium, 0.14% hydrogen, 0.095% manganese, 0.070% phosphorus, 0.065% fluorine, 0.026% sulfur, 0.025% carbon, 0.017% zirconium, 0.013% chlorine, 0.009% rubidium, 0.002% nitrogen, 0.001% chromium, ...
Beyond the tropopause is the stratosphere, up to about 50 km. Temperatures increase in this region as you go outward, up to a maximum of about −3°C. Nacreous clouds live here.
Beyond that is the mesosphere, out to about 85 km, the mesopause, and temperatures drop rapidly down to about −110°C. Here be noctilucent clouds.
The thermosphere or heterosphere extends from the mesopause out to about 500 km. This is strongly affected by solar radiation, and reaches a temperature of 1480°C during the day during maximum activity, or 225°C during the night low down in the thermosphere during minimum solar activity.
Beyond that is the exosphere, where the atmosphere is so tenuous as to be space.
It's a beautiful movie in cinematography as well as an important movie to see in these current troubled times--to understand the historical conflict between India and Pakistan, and also to undertand that Sikhs are not Muslims, even though they wear turbans. Also to show people that most Americans don't understand, and to show how some Western imperialism has contributed to the state of the world today.
The movie has English subtitles, with dialog in Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and other languages. Highly recommended.
The book starts out as a loose collection of essays, each giving a sociological caricature of our past, present, or future, and as the book progresses, these essays are tightly woven through a plot involving an apparently accidental impending doomsday of Earth, and its eventual prevention. Along the way, through actions, speculation, and thoughts by characters and groups, we are encouraged to think about what the Earth has today, and to appreciate it and treasure it. Various characters in the book speculate on the existence, search for, and interaction with extra-terrestrial life, genesis of life on Earth, struggle to live in and preserve (or destroy) their environment, and lightly experiment with multiple forms of speculative theology.
Societal characters include, gangs, corrupt politicians, and several groups of environmental extremists at both ends--including smugglers, poachers, Mother Earth worshipers, and Sun worshipers.
As typical for science fiction, some solutions to today's problems are offered, including a solution to political and financial corruption, a solution to common violent crime, and a partial solution to the continuing trend of the extinctions of species. Thoughts on creationism vs. evolutionism and their integration are explored.
The core of science about which the book's plot revolves includes a partial solution to the physics Theory of Everything, incorporating string theory and black holes.
Brin also expresses his pessimism on some problems ever being solved, or being solved in time anyway, including economical controlled fusion, political corruption, war, global warming, economical escape from Earth's gravity well, artificial intelligence, thinning of the ozone layer, human population growth, man vs. the ecosystem, and the nature of consciousness.
In short, the book Earth is a long deep speculation on the meaning of life and the planet Earth's place the universe.
Brin manages to covers a very wide range of topics, while tightly integrating them into the plot line, and yet still comes up with an interesting and somewhat surprising ending, making this book well worth its 600 pages.
The planet Earth was not a planet at all, but a gigantic computer of such amazing complexity that organic life formed part of its operational matrix. It was designed and programmed by another computer named Deep Thought, in order to find the Ultimate Question for a group of hyperintelligent, pan-dimensional beings who had recently found the Ultimate Answer to be "forty-two". It was built by the planet-manufacturing civilisation of Magrathea and placed in orbit around a miserable yellow star called Sol, deep in an unfashionable backwater of the Galaxy where it was most likely to be left alone. It was also, coincidentally, placed in a Plural zone, which can only be attributed to a planning oversight. The program was to take ten million years to run.
After eight million years had passed on the young planet, an arkload of fifteen million moronic Golgafrinchans, expelled from their home planet, crashlanded into a swamp in prehistoric Europe. Only a few hundred thousand Golgafrinchans survived the impact, but with their complete lack of respect for local wildlife and their admittedly superior technology, they eventually wiped out the indigenous cavemen - and a respectable portion of the Ultimate Question program, distorting the eventual output from the correct Question to read "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"
Another two million years passed. The Golgafrinchans evolved and spread, forgot their extraterrestrial origins, and became the dominant life-form on planet Earth. Though the program still somehow continued to run, it had become utterly corrupted. Then, at lunchtime on an otherwise ordinary Thursday in early September 198-, just five minutes before the program was scheduled to be completed, the Earth was unexpectedly demolished by a Vogon Constructor Fleet. Though the reason given was that a hyperspace bypass was to be built through the Sol system, the actual reason was that Gag Halfrunt and every other psychiatrist in the Galaxy wanted to prevent anyone from ever finding out the Ultimate Question, and had employed the Vogons to do their dirty work.
There exists a near-infinite multiplicity of Universes, scattered across the vast spectrum or probability. In most of these universes there is a planet Earth. In many of these universes, Earth was demolished by the Vogons. In many others, it wasn't. Several years after the original Earth had been demolished, thanks to what has been described as "a fault line in the landscape of probability", a second Earth suddenly took the place of the first one, carrying on from the very second it had left off. A few seconds later the program ran to completion, but since Earth's hyperintelligent pan-dimensional overseers were not around to see it, nobody ever found out what the Question was.
All of the near-infinite multiplicities of the planet Earth were finally destroyed several years later still by a lost, confused Grebulon warship, which had been manipulated to do so via reverse temporal engineering on the part of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Mark 2. This ended the great experiment to find the Ultimate Question. The Guide Mk 2 had originally been researched, designed and created by Vogons, and funded by a staggering quantity of money provided by the amassed psychiatrists of the Galaxy.
The original entry for Earth in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy read, due to space considerations and Earth's utter insignificance in every way, "Harmless".
Ford Prefect, a field researcher for the Guide, came to Earth in order to expand the entry. He intended to come for two weeks but ended up stranded for fifteen years, and in that time he wrote a very great deal about the planet - "text, diagrams, figures and images, moving desciptions of surf on Australian beaches, yoghurt on Greek islands, restaurants to avoid in Los Angeles, currency deals to avoid in Istanbul, weather to avoid in London, bars to go everywhere" (extract from So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish). This he transmitted off to the Guide offices towards the end of his stay. Unfortunately his submission was extensively cut down by the Guide's editing departments. For the most part of the Hitchhiker trilogy, the Earth was represented by the immortal phrase "Mostly Harmless".
Several years later, with Earth's baffling continuing existence, Ford's entry was restored in its entirety.
Earth (?), n. [AS. eor&?;e; akin to OS. ertha, OFries. irthe, D. aarde, OHG. erda, G. erde, Icel. jör&?;, Sw. & Dan. jord, Goth. aIrpa, OHG. ero, Gr. &?;, adv., to earth, and perh. to E. ear to plow.]
1.
The globe or planet which we inhabit; the world, in distinction from the sun, moon, or stars. Also, this world as the dwelling place of mortals, in distinction from the dwelling place of spirits.
That law preserves the earth a sphere And guides the planets in their course.S. Rogers.
In heaven, or earth, or under earth, in hell.Milton.
2.
The solid materials which make up the globe, in distinction from the air or water; the dry land.
God called the dry land earth.Gen. i. 10.
He is pure air and fire, and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him.Shak.
3.
The softer inorganic matter composing part of the surface of the globe, in distinction from the firm rock; soil of all kinds, including gravel, clay, loam, and the like; sometimes, soil favorable to the growth of plants; the visible surface of the globe; the ground; as, loose earth; rich earth.
Give him a little earth for charity.Shak.
4.
A part of this globe; a region; a country; land.
Would I had never trod this English earth.Shak.
5.
Worldly things, as opposed to spiritual things; the pursuits, interests, and allurements of this life.
Our weary souls by earth beguiled.Keble.
6.
The people on the globe.
The whole earth was of one language.Gen. xi. 1.
7. (Chem.)
(a)
Any earthy-looking metallic oxide, as alumina, glucina, zirconia, yttria, and thoria.
(b)
A similar oxide, having a slight alkaline reaction, as lime, magnesia, strontia, baryta.
8.
A hole in the ground, where an animal hides himself; as, the earth of a fox. Macaulay.
They [ferrets] course the poor conies out of their earths.Holland.
⇒ Earth is used either adjectively or in combination to form compound words; as, earth apple or earth-apple; earth metal or earth-metal; earth closet or earth-closet.
Adamic earth, Bitter earth, Bog earth,
